It came as our spending power, the cash we have to spend each month, slid 1.4 per cent. The tiny amount we put away at the start of the year was down from 3.3 per cent in the last three months of 2016.

The savings ratio has averaged 9.2 per cent of disposable income over the past 54 years when records began.

Frances O’Grady, boss of the TUC, called the Office for National Statistics figures “grim”.

She added: “With wages falling as living costs rise, many families are having to run down their savings or rely on credit cards and loans to get through the month.

“We urgently need to create better paid jobs.”

She said the UK was “at the start of another living standards crisis”.